Race and Equity Read Aloud PD

Race and Equity Read Aloud PD

Posted on 04/04/2018

On Thursday, March 29, many of the JK, PK, and kindergarten teachers took part in professional development coordinated by Tonya Katz (grade 2 teacher) and Cherie Coulson (school counselor) together with graduate students from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. The workshop, an early stage in the Racial Equity Project being developed by FMA staff and Harvard students, introduced our early childhood educators to carefully selected books designed to introduce our youngest learners to concepts of multiculturalism, educating them about the range of skin tones in age appropriate and fun language.

The idea, according to Ms. Katz, is to introduce themes of multiculturalism in the earliest grades to build a foundation to explore more advanced themes of social justice and racial equity in later grades.

“I like this book, All the Colors We Are,” stated Ms. Canty, a kindergarten teacher, of one of the four books introduced. “It helps children to see skin tone as a fact of geography. It makes it clear that skin tone does not attribute or take away value from a person in any way. I think this book will help us answer lots of questions that children have about the differences in skin tone among us. I am eager to read this to my class.”

The four books that will be used in the racial equity curriculum are:

All the Colors We Are: The Story of How We Get Our Skin Color by Katie Kissinger